Pennsylvania's new Congressional districts: A user's guide

There are worries about voter confusion in the wake of Monday's decisions by federal courts to stay out of the legal wrangling over the makeup of Pennsylvania's Congressional districts.

So, as a reader / voter service, PennLive is seeking out answers to some of the pressing questions you may have about what this means for you today, and on election day.

It really doesn't have to be that bad.

Who is my Congressman today?

Don't be thrown off by all the talk about the 2018 elections. While they play out, everyone in Pennsylvania continues to be represented by the Congressmen that were elected in 2016 through the end of this year.

His or her term will actually expire, according to the terms of the U.S. Constitution, at noon on Jan. 3, 2019.

When do the new lines take effect?

For the purposes of selecting your Congressman for the term that starts in 2019, they are in effect now.

So while you continue to be represented by the Class of 2016 for the purposes of making your opinions known on federal issues or doing business with the federal government, as you think about who you want to represent you next year, that's where the new lines come in.

You need to know about the changes so you can make an informed decision about next year.

Where can I find out which of the new districts I live in?

A good starting point is this interactive map produced by PennLive's Nick Malawskey. Just insert your street address, town, and state (because of shared names), hit the return and see where you pop up.

They have both images of the maps, if you're good at eyeballing where you live, and text descriptions of what counties, municipalities and, in some cases, voting precincts, are in which.

Where it gets hairy are in place where voting precincts have been split by census blocks in order to even out populations. There, most county elections offices have already posted maps of the municipal splits on their sites.

If all else fails, you can call your county elections or voter registration office, provide your address, and they'll get you squared away.

Do I still vote at the same place?

Yes.

Nothing about this changes your polling place.

If you live in one of the split precincts, elections judges will have separate ballots for the different Congressional districts, and make sure that you get the proper ballot.

If I'm confused, will the elections officials be ready to go?

Acting Secretary of State Robert Torres said Tuesday that his office "expects to be 100 percent ready for voters on May 15."

In fact, the state has been working with the new maps since last month, when it formally opened the period in which candidates could gather signatures to get on the primary ballot.

To the surprise of many, the voters - with a major assist from the Philadelphia-based Public Interest Law Center and its legal allies- won their case, and the state Supreme Court ordered the creation of corrective maps for the 2018 elections.

Will these maps govern the 2020 elections, too?

They are intended by the court to serve as a permanent fix until the next census.

It is conceivable the legislature and the governor could adopt another plan before then, in the interest of preserving the legislative and executive branch supremacy in the process.

But they would have to weigh the practicality of that against the knowledge that everything would be changing again for 2022.